What does the Bible say about the Rapture and Tribulation?

What does Rapture Theology Teach?

The belief in a rapture of the saints is based on 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17. 

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”

• Rapture theology teaches that this catching up of all believers to meet the Lord in the air includes both the righteous dead and the righteous living.
• The rapture is said to be a secret event, not known to unbelievers at the time of its occurrence.
• After the rapture of the saints, there will be a seven-year period of tribulation on earth during which the antichrist will rule.
• After seven years of tribulation, Christ will return to the earth with the raptured saints.
• Christ will defeat His enemies and reign over the earth for 1,000 years of peace called the Millennium.
• This view of the second coming is called the “pre-tribulation” view because it teaches that Christ comes for the church before the great tribulation. Other views are called ‘mid-tribulation’ and ‘post-tribulation’, depending on when they believe the righteous will be raptured.

The trouble with this belief system is that it is not Biblical. It tries to separate the rapture from the actual physical return of Jesus Christ and places a seven-year period in between these events. The seven years are taken from a prophecy in Daniel chapter 9, which deals with Christ’s first advent.  The Jews made the same mistake when they confused the prophecies concerning Christ’s first advent with those of His second advent. We must not do the same.

• What does the Bible say about the Rapture?

It tells us that the rapture is anything but secret and that it is not separated from the second coming of Christ. They are part of the same event. The idea of a secret rapture is not found in historic Christianity.  Christians for centuries have believed that Christ’s coming would be a literal, visible, and audible event that would follow a period of tribulation during which God’s true and faithful followers would be gloriously delivered from evil forces bent on their destruction. This was the belief of great Biblical scholars of the past and the founders of present-day Protestant denominations. Let’s look at the Bible evidence for this view:

• Revelation 1:7 – “Behold, He [Jesus] is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him”.

• • Matthew 24:30-31 – “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn (because they left it too late to repent), and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect, from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other”.    
  • Matthew 24:27 – “For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be”.   

• Matthew 16:27 – “For the Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels”.                    

• 1 Thessalonians 4:16 – “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God”.

The coming of Jesus will be a glorious event. The splendour surrounding Jesus and His holy angels will stretch from horizon to horizon and will be beyond human language to describe. The very atmosphere will be charged with resplendent glory. Every man, woman, and child alive at this time will see and hear Him come. There will be no need for anyone to tell us that Christ has come.  Christ Himself tells us to be wary of those who say “‘Look, here is the Christ! or there! Do not believe it . . . If they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert! Do not go out; or Look, He is in the inner rooms! Do not believe it” (Matthew 24:23, 26).

These are serious words for a serious time, and it would be well to heed this admonition from our Lord.

What does Rapture Theology Teach about the Tribulation?

According to many Christians:

• The tribulation is a seven-year period that will begin immediately following the saints’ rapture and end with Christ’s second coming.

• During this time, evil will be unrestrained, and the antichrist will reign from a newly built temple in Jerusalem.
• Disease, natural disasters, wars, plagues, and devastation will wrap the world in its grip. What we see today is but a foretaste of the atrocities to come.

• During this time, Earth’s wicked will be given a second chance to repent and come to Christ.

• What Does the Bible say about the Tribulation?

1. “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:21).
2. “At that time (just before the second coming), Michael shall stand up, the great Prince who stands watch over the sons of your people (the remnant church, Revelation 12:17); and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the Book (of Life)” (Daniel 12:1; Revelation 13:8; 21:27).

1. “So, he (one of the heavenly elders) said to me, ‘These (those raptured when Jesus comes) are the ones who come out of the great tribulation and washed their robes (their robes of character) and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14).

1. Jesus Christ, in speaking to His disciples about the destruction of Jerusalem and His second coming, which mirrors this event, gave this advice – “Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (Matthew 24:20-22).

If the “elect”, God’s people, are raptured before “the great tribulation”, why would they need the days to be “shortened”?

From these texts alone, among many others, we have compelling evidence to suggest that the elect are not raptured before the tribulation.

Throughout the Bible, we are given examples of God’s people being saved in tribulations, but not from them.

• When the Israelites were captive in Egypt, God preserved them from the plagues that devastated the country. Just as Israel was delivered from Egyptian bondage after the plagues and protected during them, so God’s faithful people will be delivered after the tribulation and protected during it (Revelation 16; Psalm 91; Psalm 46).
• Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into a fiery furnace when they refused to break one of God’s commandments despite the king of Babylon’s death decree. Their death-defying faith forced them into flames of tribulation, but in those flames, God revealed Himself and miraculously delivered them (Daniel 3:16-28).
• Daniel’s decision to be faithful in his prayer life and to worship the God of heaven only resulted in him being thrown into the lion’s den. God saved Daniel while he was going through his night of tribulation, not before it (Daniel 6).
• Similarly, right before Christ returns, the faithfulness of the elect will cause them to be the target of the ungodly, bringing about a time of persecution and great tribulation. However, the same Jesus who was with the Hebrew men in the fire and with Daniel in the lion’s den will go through our trials with us.  When the last day judgments are poured out upon the world, God will shield those who remain faithful to Him.

God does not rescue His people from trial but protects them through trial. The post-tribulation view is the one taught in the Bible.

The Bible presents Jesus’ second coming as the great climactic event of the ages when men and women are either saved or lost for eternity. “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work” (Revelation 22:12).

There is no seven-year period to reconsider our lives and change our destiny.  Jesus graphically illustrated the separation that will take place at His coming using language the people could understand:

“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world’ . . . Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels’” (Matthew 25:31-34, 41).

Revelation 22:20 – “He (Christ) who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming quickly’. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus”.

For more information on the second coming of Christ, please refer to this website https://www.amazingfacts.com.au/  and ask for Free Offer No. 3 – The Coming of the King. This free study guide will answer many questions regarding Christ’s rapture and second coming.

Also, on this website, you will find a video presentation entitled, The Coming of the King.

(All Bible references are from the NKJV unless otherwise specified).